Never Look Back
by MelodiousRain
Summary: I never really wanted what I have; hell, I never even considered it as a possibility. I was nothing until I found them, until I found her.I was the person in the dark alleyways that people avoided , the trash in society that would never amount to, well... anything good. I always believed that I was never meant to be happy...My name is Riven
1. Chapter 1

I never really wanted what I have; hell, I never even considered it as a possibility. I was nothing until I found them, until I found her. I was the person in the dark alleyways that people avoided , the trash in society that would never amount to, well... anything good. I always believed that I was never meant to be happy, I learned at an early age that if something seemed to good to be true they are and that trust is for the people who get stabbed in the back. Never rely on anyone and it may keep you from adding to the rest of the nameless people sunken to the bottom of lake Magix. I am not nameless though. My name is Riven.

Chapter 1: Eye on the prize

He was standing by the corner waiting, always waiting. He was among the thousands of shoppers at Magix Mall, but Riven knew he was nothing like these pampered fools and he for one was probably the only person there with a purpose. He had to suppress a bitter laugh; his purpose was to make enough money to get some food in his system and, if he was lucky, enough to spend a night at a run down motel. Riven had his own places to stay of course: a bench on 6th Avenue, an abandoned warehouse by the docks, the homeless shelter on Harper street. But he'd rather have slept in the comforts of a motel. Not only did Riven get a decent shower, but he also got to sleep in a bed. His stomach gave a loud complaint. It had been at least two days since Riven had eaten, not counting the half eaten burger he found in the dumpster by McDonald's.

Riven scanned the crowded mall. Each of the shoppers was chiming happily as they made it through their daily doings. Finally, one person in particular caught his eye. The guy's expensive blond haircut was cut to about shoulder-length. His sky blue eyes slanted ever so slightly his attire looked like it was taken directly out of a catalog. The guy's appearance screamed money yet none of this was what had made Riven target this guy. It was the studded jeweled ring on his figure. Selling that on the black market would allow Riven a room and food for an entire month. Riven eyed the gaudy ring hungrily. The target stood next to another guy, who was not nearly as nicely dressed, but his build was massive in comparison to his own. In his weakened state, even with his personally honed fighting skills, Riven knew he would have a difficult time taking down the big one. Then there was the off-chance the spoiled blond guy would help his bulky sidekick. He couldn't take the chance; the blond would have to be alone sometime and that's when he would make his move.

To Riven's complete annoyance the target never seemed to be alone; he was either more guarded or he was less guarded. It had taken Riven half an hour to realize the he wasn't the only person following the blond guy; he had about ten body guards in all, most of which kept their distance except for the bulky one who followed the guy like a shadow. The other nine weaved through the crowed pretending to browse through merchandise; only every so often would a few of them leave to scout out the perimeter. The blond guy must've been pretty special to have so much security. Perhaps he was a duke or an earl of some realm. Riven should've felt privileged to be mugging someone of such high stature. It would be an excellent payday and would also give him recognition among the others of his kind who roamed the streets.

He carefully made his way after the guy; not so close as to be noticed but not as far as to lose sight either. The target was making his way toward the exit of the building, herded by the rest of the shoppers making way to the exits as closing time neared. In the crowd, the man was separated from his many body guards and was being calmly pushed towards the door. He even somehow managed to lose his massive sidekick and was about as vulnerable as he would ever be. Riven, taking advantage of the opportunity, was using his lean figure to easily slip through the masses of shoppers.. As they exited the mall Riven found himself right behind the man; he gently bumped against him, his hand sliding gracefully to its mark.

A hand grabbed Riven by the wrist and with one simple maneuver twisted his arm ever so painfully behind his back. Riven's eyes widened in surprise as the blond guy quickly disabled him.

"What do you think you are doing!" the blond asked in dismay as Riven slowly regained his posture by pulling away violently. The wisest thing to do at this moment would have been run but something else was working in the back of his mind.

"Well..." Riven replied, his mind racing for an excuse, "...I was testing your security! Not too keen if I do say so myself." Riven stepped forward taking offensive as he surprised the guy with a punch to the lower stomach. Continuing his attack Riven went for the legs, aiming to knock the guy over, but the guy had already recovered stance, easily blocked the kick, and maneuvered himself into the offensive position, his right hook barely catching Riven's cheek.

Riven forced down his feelings of shock and fear. His targets had never fought back before. "And today folks we have a fighter." Riven snapped as he feinted right to unnerve the blond guy.

"Who do you work for! Is it Yoshinoya?" Riven's attack caught the blonde and the blonde yelped as he stumbled back into the street. Riven thoughtlessly tackled the guy, rolling them both into the center of the four lane. Horns blared and angry shouts came from the passing drivers.

"I work for nobody but myself!" Riven shouted breathlessly pulling himself to his feet and retaking stance. "Just give me all your money and that ring and I won't hurt you! It could've been that simple to begin with!" Riven even heard the cry of desperation in his voice as he shouted the statement. The blonde guy's eyes widened as he stared at Riven in disbelief . In the background Riven saw the onslaught of body guards trying to get though the crowd and the ongoing traffic.

"You're a common thief!" the blonde exclaimed. Riven threw himself at the guy knocking both of them to the ground .

"Give it to me" he snapped as he clawed at the guy's hand.

"No I can't! Let go of me!" the blonde guy pulled away and attempted to roll onto his stomach. Riven pushed down hard and landed a punch to the guy's jaw as he struggled to keep him down. The man flipped Riven onto his back throwing a punch at his eye. Riven moved his head gasping in pain as the gaudy ring drug deeply into the side of his head leaving a gash. He pushed off the blonde only to tackle him once more, gripping onto the his shirt tightly. The guy glared at him with his blue eyes which shot wide in panic. "Look out!" he screamed as Riven got pulled away violently and tossed into the back of a van.

Another man slammed him into the side of the van, roughly tying his hands behind his back. He turned his head and saw similar treatment was happening to the blonde who was now lying on his side unmoving. The bodyguards had just made it to the clearing and were making there way towards the vehicle the bulky guy in lead. The doors were slammed shut and Riven felt a sharp pain as one of the attackers hit him in the side of the head, knocking him down next to the unconscious blonde. His vision blurred and his thoughts were scrambling to comprehend what had just happened. His eyes somehow found their way to the blond guy's hands securely tied behind his back and landed on the gaudy ring that had once seemed so promising. Looked like there'd be no stay at a run-down motel tonight.

(*authors note* thank you for reading my story I worked hard on it. I couldn't of done it alone so thank you to Kyree Winx for the help. I will continue working on the story and will attempt to leave a note each time. I will answer any questions you may have if you will privet message me or comment on the story. I will be looking at all comments just to see the opinions of my readers. Thank you for your consideration and time.)

MelodiousRain


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Barbie

It was raining. There was this constant echoing of the falling rain all around Riven, though it wasn't all falling on him, and it rang throughout his mind like rhythmic music. That sound and the feeling of something cool and wet dripping onto Riven's forehead drew him closer to the brink of consciousness, but he fought it. The world blurred in and out, as he approached and pulled from consciousness; he perceived very little beyond the sound of rain, only shouting. Once he saw a fuzzy vision of the blonde he had tried to mug. The blonde leaned over him, his hair seeming far too yellow his eyes a shocking shade of blue. It hurt Riven's eyes to view the contrasting brightness with the gray world around them.

"You have to get up," the blonde said, his voice almost completely drowned out by the sound of the falling rain, "I can't get out of here alone. Get up… please." the blonde urged. The world blurred out to black again, and the blonde was gone from Riven's mind and vision.

Riven returned to realms of his unconscious mind, listening to the rain… the beautiful music. Then awareness shot through him like adrenaline and the drops on his forehead seemed suddenly colder, the rain louder and less beautiful. Numbness flooded through him and no matter how much he fought, he was forced to consciousness. He gasped as his eyes opened, as the gray world appeared in his view again. However, this time there was no blonde guy pleading for his help and Riven felt everything.

"Whoever did this to me better hope like hell that I'm dead." Riven groaned as he struggled to sit up. He felt that his hands were tightly bound behind his back and he pulled hard in an attempt to loosen the knots, to no avail. A quick glance about his surroundings offered him troubling bits of information about his location; the heavily graffitied wall and piles of discarded crates that cluttered the warehouse told Riven that they were by the docks. Closer inspection of the graffiti made Riven curse. Judging by the insignias, they were in Silver Serpent territory, a group Riven wasn't exactly on good terms with.

Movement in his peripheral view caught his attention and he turned to see the his mug-attempt victim huddled in the corner. The blonde guy was tied to a metal bar and his appearance no longer looked so blinding to Riven. "Hope you weren't too attached to your friends." Riven said in a mocking tone.

"Yeah because that's the kind of crowd I prefer to hang with!" the blond spat sarcastically in return. as he tugged furiously at his own bindings. "Any chance you could get loose?" the blonde said grudgingly, nodding to Riven's ropes.

Riven pulled hard, twisting his arm painfully. The pain made him wince and anger welled up inside him. "No I can't!" he snapped at the blonde in frustration. "I'm freezing my ass off, its wet, and I haven't eaten in two days! And all of a sudden I've gotten dragged into Silver Serpent issues I didn't even try to affiliate myself with! Who the hell are you and why did I ever think mugging you was going to be easy?" Riven shifted position to get a better look at the blond, who stared back at him with a grim-but-bemused look. "What?"

"You thought mugging me was going to be easy? And to be honest you kind of deserve this considering the lifestyle and sense of morality you've decided to have in life." the blonde said matter-of-fact like.

Riven groaned. "Great… to top everything off I'm about to be patronized in captivity…" he was cut off by a loud crash from the warehouse office and he redirected his attention from his victim/captivity companion to the office.

A deep voice rang out from the cracked office door. "Yoshinoya is gonna be furious! How many times did I tell you not to damage the merchandise!"

The second voice was filled with excuses and fear as its owner spoke. "Boss it wasn't us I swear! It was that purple haired guy we picked up on accident!"

"Purple?!" Riven scoffed. He sure as hell was no violet-headed whelp. The blonde glanced at him with a look that practically screamed, 'Seriously?'

"You idiots Yoshinoya isn't going to care who screwed up he's just gonna expect somebody to pay for the damages!" The boss' voice stopped as something seemed to occur to him. "Speaking of which, have you two dimwits even checked on the package in the last six hours?!" The boss' yell echoed, the sound bouncing forcefully off the walls of the warehouse. Riven's companion gave him a frantic look.

There was another crash from the office and the door burst open. Out stumbled a thin guy about twenty or so dressed in ratty jeans and a t-shirt. The guy's hair was a vibrant purple styled in a spiked Mohawk, and Riven almost gagged from laughing. Or maybe revulsion. Possibly anger. The point was the man made his way over to Riven and his blonde companion. He worriedly glanced at "the package" and looked relieved that he was still breathing. Then he glanced at Riven, but the glance was not really a look of relief or worry.

"Hey man!" Riven chimed in a false cheerful manner. "Come here! Got something to show ya!"

With a growl, the guy stomped toward Riven, his hand reaching for a knife tucked into his belt. "What do you want?!" The guy yelled making a threatening motion towards Riven with the knife. Riven ignored the fear of the knife flaying him alive and snickered. "What's so funny?!" The guy came in closer to Riven as though he were going to stab him. Instead, he was greeted by Riven's foot hitting him in stomach. The guy landed on his knees, the wind knocked out of him, and his knife slid towards Riven.

Riven snatched the knife and freed himself. Before the man could regain his breath and shout for help, Riven knocked him out cold with a well-aimed punch in the face. "The hair is magenta!" he grumbled. Before he could move to escape a shrill yell called out.

"The purple-haired guy has escaped!" A man who'd apparently come to assist the guy Riven had knocked out fumbled with his pockets for some kind of weapon. "Magenta…" Riven fought down the urge to run at the guy and focused on rational planning. Reinforcements of more thug-like sizes came running out from the office, equipped with guns. "…too many… I can't take them myself." he thought quickly, and began thinking out his options. "Ah… shit."

Realization of the situation had finally sunk in and Riven overcame his pride. He ran to his mug-victim/captivity companion-turned ally and used the knife to cut him free. "Well Barbie, it appears as though we're going to have to work together on this one."

The blonde said nothing, but Riven saw his eyes moving over the enemy, as though he were calculating. Finally he spoke, "If we make it out of this, I'll owe you big time." The blonde turned to Riven and met his gaze. "Seriously."

Riven grinned madly "I'll hold you to it. Just try to keep up!"

The battle broke out as the thugs tried to apprehend them again, only this time they were expecting the attack. Riven and the blonde covered one another's weaknesses with a harmony that surprised Riven completely. He didn't dwell on this strange teamwork though. He was too busy working to keep up with the skilled fighting style the blonde was showcasing.

"My hair is magenta! You damn, stupid, color-blind…" Riven punched a guy in jaw and dodged some thug's knife. He grabbed the thug by the arm and threw him over his shoulder. Turning from that completed brawl, Riven turned toward the blonde and saw he was rushing Riven. "What the…"

"Behind you!" his ally shouted. Riven turned and narrowly ducked the punch that was headed toward him. The blond stopped and grabbed the guy's arm, twisting it painfully. Riven rose to the side finishing the guy with a hard knee into his rib cage. The guy fell into a heap as Riven and the blond turned back-to-back to face the rest of the onslaught.

"I'm impressed Barbie! You've got some skills to be all pompous about after all!" Riven called out.

The blonde fell into a swift crouch, and swung his leg around to trip three attackers. "Stop calling me Barbie. You don't hear me calling you purple-haired guy." He got to his feet and knocked a weapon out of some thug's hand.

Riven grabbed a guy by the hair and lifted him to eye level. The man flinched as Riven stopped his fist before the guy's face then thumbed towards the blonde. "Can you believe this guy?" the man shrugged in reply before Riven punched him and let him fall to the floor. He watched with mild respect as the blonde disposed the last of their attackers. The guy then turned to him. "Let's get out of here." Riven suggested.

Some time during that fight, the rain had stopped. The sky shone a bright orange color as the sun was starting to set on the sea's horizon. Riven and the blonde stumbled out of the warehouse, blinking in the brighter light. After his eyes finished adjusting, Riven walked up to the edge of the dock and stared down into the water. Then he turned to the blonde.

"Riven," he grunted with a shrug. He then slid his hands into his pockets and directed his embarrassed gaze to his feet.

The blond stared at him in momentary confusion, then realized what it was Riven meant. "Oh! I'm Sky, Crown Prince of Eraklyon."

Riven gawked at his mug victim/captivity companion/ ally. He'd heard of Eraklyon and their precious Crown Prince. "Shit… I tried to steal from the Crown Prince of Eraklyon? That's definitely going on my resume."

Sky, Crown Prince of Eraklyon, laughed. "Yeah… like you've got a resume."

"Not like you have one either!" Riven said defensively.

"I don't need one." Sky said smugly.

"Right…" Riven coughed. Sirens began wailing far off in the distance. Either somebody called about a noise complaint, or the cops finally got a lead on the disappearance of the Crown Prince of Eraklyon. "That's my cue." Riven turned and began walking away from Sky, heading for one of his quicker escape routes from the docks. He felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"Riven wait!" Sky said. Riven turned and felt Sky shove something into his hand. "I'm going to Red Fountain in Magix next semester," Riven looked at the gaudy ring lying in the palm of his hand. " and I'd like to hang out sometime… if I'm not too pompously royal for you to hang out with. The only thing I ask…" Sky made a face as he looked Riven up and down, "…shower, man. Your scent right now makes ogre BO smell like the Princess of Solaria's perfumes."

Riven smirked. "Well, she must stink up your fancy-schmancy parties all the time then, because I don't smell anything." He closed his hand around the ring and made a mock-bow to the prince. "By your leave, your majesty." He turned and sprinted down an alleyway just as some police vehicles pulled up.

(*authors note* Thank you to Kyree Winx my partner in crime, and to my readers I'm sorry about the delay in-between postings I'll try to work on it this being my first fan fiction its all just a work in progress. Please review on this I am truly curious to all of the opinions and suggestions you all have to offer. Thank you for your consideration and time.)

MelodiousRain


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